There’s an App For That Interior Design!

This article was submitted by guest author Beryn Hammil, owner of Beryn Hammil Designs, a San Francisco Bay Area interior design and decorating firm. She is known for “creating spaces that people love coming home to every day.” As a designer, Beryn listens carefully to her clients’ needs, and then expands on them to create the homes that people enjoy living in for years after the work is complete.

I’m honored and flattered to have been so prominently featured in the recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle’s business section regarding how interior designers are using technology in our work. And, yes, I’m a self-professed “geek,” though “chic geek” is probably a more accurate description.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to it: Design? There’s an App. This is the headline from the printed edition, and, IMHO, more compelling than the headline in the on-line version.

Apps for Interior Design

• Benjamin Moore Color Capture
  Free by Benjamin Moore & Co.
  For: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android
  Snap a photo of a favorite color and match it to one of the 3,300 hues in the paint maker’s catalog. Designers warn that mismatches can occur when colors are shot in dim light.
• Fortuny Fabric Browser
  Free by Fortuny Inc.
  For: iPad, iPhone
  Browse, order samples and fabric for upholstering from the storied company.
• Geograph CA
  $4.99 by Integrity Logic LLC.
  For: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
  Learn about the seismic issues and solidity of the rock underlying a proposed building site.
• Home Interior Layout Designer – Mark on Call
  $2.99 by M.O.C. Interior Designer, LLC
  For: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
  Designer Mark Lewison, author of “What Would You Do With This Room?,” has come up with a room layout app that plots furniture and other objects in a given space.
• Houzz
  Free by Houzz Inc.
  For: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch. Information also accessible on houzz.com
  Houzz helps users define their style, track down professionals and find answers to specific design questions.
• iHandy Level
  Free by iHandySoft Inc.
  For: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
  Just what it sounds like: a virtual level.
• Johnson Bubble
  Free by Johnson
  For: Droid and other smart phones with an accelerometer
  It’s another virtual level.
• Google Sketchup
  Free by Google
  For: all devices running Mac or Windows operating systems
  Make a three-dimensional model of a space, starting from scratch or change anything in an existing space from paint color to furniture to structural components. Good for virtual walk-throughs. An expensive, more technically exacting version of the program is available to the design trade.

More Apps to Come

In future editions of “There’s an App for That” I will present more apps that can be used for interior and exterior design. The ones shown here are just the tip of the iceberg, so stay tuned…

This list is not an endorsement of any product or app, but intended to serve as a guideline. Use your own judgment about what works best for you.



BIO: Beryn is a member of ASID and known throughout the Bay Area for the “Design Dilemma” columns she writes for the San Francisco Chronicle’s Home & Garden section. Her interior design and remodel projects are as compelling as her written ideas. And now, she’s added another dimension to her talents; writing a blog about “tech information for non-techies.” Design Tech Tonics is where you’ll find her ideas on-line.